The final race of round four of the 2006 AUTOBACS SUPER GT, the JAPAN GT MALAYSIA, was run on June 25 at the Sepang International Circuit, and team ARTA NSX (Daisuke Ito, Ralph Firman) were the winners, scoring their first victory of the season.
Starting from the pole position (1st-place qualifier), the ARTA NSX pair ran strong throughout the race, without actually giving up the lead once. Last year, the team had started the same way from the pole position here at Sepang, only to give up the lead to the XANAVI NISMO Z with three laps remaining in the race and have to settle for a disappointing 2nd. But with this victory they successfully wiped that blemish from their slate.
In the GT300 class, the AMEMIYA ASPARADRINK RX7 driven by Tetsuya Yamano and Hiroyuki Iiri proved once again how strong it is here at Sepang by scoring yet another victory, the team's fourth here in Malaysia.
(Spectators: 36,000)

Winners' comments
No.8 ARTA NSX [GT500]
Daisuk Ito: "It suddenly got hot today, and perhaps we weren't quite ready for it. Ralph didn't feel well, and when I heard the cool-suit was not working, I thought we were really in trouble (laughs)! But I made myself stay calm and think about the job ahead. Physically I was all right. Richard Lyons (MOTUL AUTECH Z) was fast out there, too, but I kept driving with the belief that we could win if I just didn't make any mistakes."



Ralph Firman: "Good afternoon. Yes, we obviously wanted to win. We obviously knew that it would be a very tough race especially like last year we had a big lead and then lost it. So, we had a good start of the race and the first fifteen laps were easy. I was just saving my tires and then I start to push again but the Nissans were catching. It was a very very tough race doing so many laps and we still got a lot of pressure from the Nissans. I think Ito is a fantastic driver. After last year when he had a problem with his fitness. I think his fitness is great this year and I think that is a good sign for the rest of the year. So, Honda has done a great job as a team and Bridgestone as well. So, everything went perfectly.

No.7 AMEMIYA ASPARADRINK RX7 [GT300]
Tetsuya Yamano: "I love Sepang. The car and the tires were both good this weekend. I started from third position but the RX7 was able to get past two machines using a fast place. After that I pushed hard to give Iiri good position for the second half of the race. My first GT win was with this team here at Sepang It makes me very happy to be back here and win again today.

Hiroyuki Iiri: "They say that the RX7 is strong here at Sepang, but things are never that easy in the Super GT. So, it is important that we were able to actually go out and get the win. In the second half the cool-suit wasn't working and it was really tough out there. Was having trouble keeping a good range of vision, but I hear that Mitsuyama behind me also have a broken cool-suit, so was lucky, I guess."